Determinants of Work Loneliness in Hybrid Work : A Comparison Study Between Newcomers and More Experienced Employees

Abstract

Remote and hybrid work became common practices due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, they entail a risk of work loneliness, which raises the question of newcomers’ socialisation to work communities. This study explores whether the social context of hybrid work is perceived differently by employees who entered the organisation during or after the pandemic and their more experienced employees and if elements of the social context of hybrid work function as antecedents for work loneliness differently among these two groups. This research is based on data (N=1641) on hybrid workers from a large technology industry company collected in December 2022. Our results show that new employees experienced higher work loneliness than experienced employees. Informal communication with supervisors and colleagues and social support from colleagues (and particularly among new employees from the supervisor) were associated with lower levels of work loneliness. Our study provides empirical evidence concerning the antecedents of work loneliness and introduces the contingency factor as an additional element to the work loneliness process model. This study also contributes to organisational socialisation literature by being the first to compare newcomers and experienced employees in the post-pandemic hybrid work context.